Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) the leading global service provider for accelerating content and business processes online, today announced it will be working with eTouch Systems Corp. to deliver content from the U.S. National Aeoronautics and Space Administration Web portal (www.nasa.gov) just in time for the space agency's Deep Impact spacecraft mission, which is set to launch a projectile into the surface of comet Tempel 1 during the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

NASA will be Webcasting live a pre-impact briefing at 1 p.m. EDT on July 1 and a pre-impact update at 1 p.m. EDT on July 3. The expected time of impact is 1:52 a.m. EDT July 4. A post-impact briefing will be held at 4 a.m. July 4. A post-impact press conference will follow at 2 p.m. EDT July 4. All briefings and press conferences will be streamed online at www.nasa.gov by Akamai.

Web viewers can visit NASA's Deep Impact viewer by clicking http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html to see photos from a disc-shaped copper projectile aimed directly into the oncoming path of the comet, blasting a crater through the comet's surface. Scientists will study the debris from the impact for clues about the nature of comets and the early development of the solar system.

eTouch Systems, which provides NASA with its Web content management system, teamed with Akamai to provide a broad suite of content delivery services for the space agency. A robust global platform is required since these types of events such as the Deep Impact mission typically generate high volumes of traffic.

For example, there have been more than 23 billion hits to NASA's Web portal since the twin Mars Rover missions landed on the Red Planet in January of 2004. Since that time, NASA has experienced 200 million visitor sessions viewing more than 2.3 billion pages. The average site visitor spends more than 8 minutes browsing across 14 pages during each visit to the NASA site.

"As the Deep Impact event lights up the darkened skies and fires the imagination of people around the world, down here on Earth we will be working with our partner eTouch to ensure that NASA site visitors can continue to access the graphically-rich content and view the live streamed press conference following the event," said Keith E. Johnson, vice president of public sector, Akamai. "By combining eTouch's elegant content management solution with Akamai's globally distributed, on-demand network, NASA can focus on what it does best - exploring the heavens and inspiring a new generation of space explorers."

"We have found that Akamai's architecture has the robustness to meet the rigorous requirements that organizations like NASA have come to expect," said David Valliere, federal program manager for eTouch. "We are confident that together we can ensure uninterrupted access to NASA's Web portal so that viewers worldwide can see the incredible Deep Impact mission unfold on the Internet."

The Deep Impact comet collision should be visible with the aid of binoculars to millions of people here on Earth in the early morning hours of U.S. Independence Day. Viewers in the United States living west of the Mississippi and in Hawaii, and people in New Zealand will have the best opportunity to witness the event.

About Akamai

Akamai® is the leading global service provider for accelerating content and business processes online. More than 1,300 organizations have formed trusted relationships with Akamai, improving their revenue and reducing costs by maximizing the performance of their online businesses. Leveraging the Akamai EdgePlatform, these organizations gain business advantage today, and have the foundation for the emerging Web solutions of tomorrow. Akamai is "The Trusted Choice for Online Business." For more information, visit www.akamai.com.

The release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai's management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, the effects of any attempts to intentionally disrupt our services or network by unauthorized users or others, failure to have available sufficient transmission capacity, a failure of Akamai's network infrastructure and other factors that are discussed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.

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Akamai secures and delivers digital experiences for the world’s largest companies. Akamai’s intelligent edge platform surrounds everything, from the enterprise to the cloud, so customers and their businesses can be fast, smart, and secure. Top brands globally rely on Akamai to help them realize competitive advantage through agile solutions that extend the power of their multi-cloud architectures. Akamai keeps decisions, apps, and experiences closer to users than anyone — and attacks and threats far away. Akamai’s portfolio of edge security, web and mobile performance, enterprise access, and video delivery solutions is supported by unmatched customer service, analytics, and 24/7/365 monitoring. To learn why the world’s top brands trust Akamai, visit www.akamai.com, blogs.akamai.com, or @Akamai on Twitter. You can find our global contact information at www.akamai.com/locations. Published 09/18.